The present invention relates to an apparatus for removing hair from a drain, and in particular to a simple apparatus that is inexpensive to manufacture.
Various devices for removing accumulated human hair from sink, bathtub and shower drains are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,032 (Hondo) discloses an apparatus consisting of an elongate shaft with a plurality of hook members for picking up hair located at the proximal end of the shaft and a handle at the distal end of the shaft.
However, there are a number of disadvantages with the Hondo device. First, the hook members are only located at the far end of the shaft, that is, the end that is inserted into the drain first. The limited number of hook members may result in the hook members being overwhelmed by a large amount of hair, with the result that much hair may remain in the drain. This would necessitate removing the shaft from the drain, removing the accumulated hair from the hook members, and reinserting the shaft to retrieve more hair.
Second, Hondo discloses the hook members as being helically configured around the longitudinal axis of the shaft. Such an arrangement is unnecessarily complex and expensive to manufacture.
With the disadvantage of the above devices in mind, the present invention consists of an elongate, flexible strip with a plurality of barbed portions interspersed along its length, and a handle attached to the flexible strip.
A principle object and advantage of the present invention is that it increases the amount of hair removed from a drain with a single insertion of the shaft because the barbed portions are interspersed along the length of the shaft, rather than being limited to one end of the shaft.
A second principle object and advantage of the present invention is that is simple and expensive to manufacture, in that the barbed portions simply alternate with one another along the strip, rather than being helically configured around the strip.
A third principle object and advantage of the present invention is that it is simple and inexpensive to manufacture because it can be made from a single piece of flexible material, such as plastic.